


The Auror Office

by theDarkestKnight1939



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Comedy, Crimes & Criminals, F/F, F/M, Multi, Other, Romance, Slice of Life, not for transphobes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24589261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theDarkestKnight1939/pseuds/theDarkestKnight1939
Summary: Voldemort is dead, but the Wizarding World will never be entirely safe. Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin returns to the Auror Office, her paranoid boss Mad-Eye Moody, and two fresh recruits, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.More or less loosely connected short stories uploaded in parts about the employees of the Auror Office and their families.
Relationships: Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody & Nymphadora Tonks, Harry Potter & Nymphadora Tonks, Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Original Trans character / Original Female Character, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks, Ron Weasley & Nymphadora Tonks
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	1. First Day (1/3)

“Honey, are you sure you wanna go back so early?”

“Yes, Remus, I’m sure. We’ve talked about this,” Tonks was sitting at the table, her bowl of porridge still full, trying to feed her son. “The question is, are you sure you are up for taking care of Teddy full time? I can call my mom to help you.”

“No, I’m going to be fine, I’ve seen you doing it. Besides,” he leaned over the table and kissed her, “I want to earn my keep, you know?”

Tonks wasn’t sure about this. Remus was a great wizard but he’s never taken care of a child on his own. But she didn’t want to show that she doesn’t believe in him, so she only answered: “That’s right, no freeloaders.” 

He smiled but a little unconvincingly and took feeding Teddy over from her. “You need to hurry up and you haven’t eaten anything.”

Tonks was unsure of herself. She thought that she got out of shape during her pregnancy and she was so stressed she couldn’t eat. When Remus was busy feeding Teddy and turned away from her, she flicked her wand and made most of the porridge disappear. “Okay, I have to go,” she went for her cloak.

“Fine, but don’t think I didn’t notice you disappeared your food,” Tonks face and hair went red. Remus, without looking, used his wand to float a chocolate bar, “At least eat this on the way.”

Tonks caught the bar and said, “Love you.” He answered, “Love you, too.” 

She started to turn around to Disapparate but decided that being a little late would be fine and stole a kiss from Remus before doing so.

***

Some of the inconveniences of the Ministry under Voldemort’s reign seemed to be there to stay. You couldn’t Floo or Apparate there because of the fear of Death Eaters trying to continue Voldemort’s work. Tonks had to go through the entrance in the public restroom, which she hated because she was always late, even when she could Apparate inside the Ministry.

After she was inside, she started running to the lift which had just started to close. She slipped through the crack, helping herself with her Metamorphmagus abilities which helped her slim down enough to get through it. But, as it usually happens with Tonks, she accidentally bumped into someone, who almost fell on the floor.

“Morning, Tonks,” said Arthur Weasley, holding the grip of the lift, “you’re back already?”

“Hey, Arthur, sorry,” she answered, “Is everyone going to be so surprised? You thought I would never come back?”

“No, it’s just… What a coincidence.”

“Coincidence?” she asked, “what do you mean?”

“You don’t know?” Arthur smiled. “You’ll see for yourself. It’s nothing ominous. Oh, that’s my floor,” he said and exited the lift. “We’re glad you’re back. Good luck.”

“Thanks, but--” the lift already closed.

It’s not that Tonks didn’t like surprises. She loved them, but after so many shocking news during the war, including her father’s death, she needed more time to enjoy them again.

Nervous, she entered the room with the name “Auror Office” on the door.

It looked more or less the same. A fairly standard office with about ten desks, only one of them occupied, and a smaller room in the corner of the office belonging to the Head of Auror Office. Its door opened and a scarred man with a large blue eye in one of his sockets limped out to greet her.

“Hi, Mad-Eye, you’re really back?”

He took out his wand, pointed it at her, and in a very gruff voice said “Who was the first perp we caught together?”

The man sitting in the room said, “C’mon Alastor, don’t be so--”

“--Shut it, Dawlish, or do you want me to check you for another Confundus charm?”

Dawlish hung his head and pretended to go back to his paperwork.

“Reynmar Prewett, he was cursing the property on Diagon Alley to buy it cheaper.”

Mad-Eye nodded. “I hope you still remember the most important thing?”

“Yes, sir,” she saluted. “Constant vigilance!” they said together and shook hands.

“So what’s this surprise?” Tonks asked.

“The surprise is that you’re not the only one late for the first day of the job,” he said, his magical eye rolling in its socket, "but I think not for long."

Tonks stared at the door and in about a minute two men burst through the door panting. It was Harry and Ron.


	2. First Day (2/3)

“Oh, we’re not the only ones late!” Ron looked around the office.

“You are,” Moody pointed his wand at them. “Where was I during your fourth year at Hogwarts?”

“Inside the last compartment of your trunk,” quickly answered Harry.

“Gentlemen, welcome to the Auror Office.” He and Tonks shook their hands and showed them to their twin desks. “After the War, we’re a lot of Aurors short. It’s been only me and…” he gestured towards the man who avoided Moody’s eye, “Dawlish.” It seemed that he didn’t like Dawlish much. “So… what kept you? I hope that’s the last time you’re late? Remember, constant vigilance!”

“We walked Ginny and Hermione to the Hogwarts Express,” said Harry, “It took longer than we expected,” they blushed.

Moody looked at them, his expression slightly softened, and said, “I understand, but boys, we run a tight ship here. There are many followers of Voldemort left and we will not rest until we get those scum back to Azkaban.”

Harry and Ron nodded and said, “This will never happen again.”

He grunted, but he didn’t seem entirely convinced. “So, now that we have more than two Aurors, we can get to some more pressing issues.”

“Why were there only two Aurors?” Ron blurted out.

“Kingsley is the Minister for Magic, the rest is dead, retired or unwilling to do the job. You are the only ones who applied and had some resemblance of experience.” he turned to his office, “Tonks, with me.”

They entered the office that was cluttered with Sneakoscopes, other Dark Magic detectors, and the aforementioned trunk in the corner. The desk was, in contrast, neat and almost empty.

“You’re still keeping the trunk you’ve been kept prisoner in for almost a year?” said Tonks, surprised.

“Of course I do,” he answered, “you need to be reminded of your shortcomings or you’ll never learn.” He showed her to a chair, “but I didn’t ask you here to be nostalgic--”

“--Nostalgic...?--”

“--but to talk about the rookies.” Tonks thought she saw concern in his normal eye. “It’s uncharted territory. Take them to your assignment and see if they’re good enough. You’ll have to report to me at the end of the day. I know you want to go back to your husband and kid but--”

“--Mad-Eye, you don’t need to,” she said firmly, “It’s my job. So, what’s the assignment?”

“There’s been gossip… well, not really gossip, I got it from Mundungus, about a shop on Knockturn Alley which is actually a meeting place of the remaining Death Eaters. Go there and investigate,” he put the wand on a piece of parchment and an address appeared. “Dismissed.”

Tonks joined Harry and Ron. She explained the job to them. “You’re up for it?”

“Of course,” they said. They went out of the Ministry to Disapparate.

***

The Diagon Alley was slowly returning to its former glory. Most of the shops were open, with shop windows full of colorful items, and there were many people walking the street, looking around. The Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was the most eyecatching building of all, even Gringotts couldn’t compare.

“Oi, maybe we can make a detour to meet George,” Ron said and started walking towards the shop.

“No, we have a job,” Tonks said, firmly.

“But I’m just gonna be a moment, I have to say hi. Just go without me.” Tonks tried to say something but he was already far away. At this moment, she started to doubt if she would be a good mother.

“Okay, Harry, you’re not going to run away, are ya?”

“Of course not Tonks, I take the job seriously.” 

Tonks smiled at him.

Then, when they entered the Knockturn Alley, she turned around and noticed a fairly large crowd following them.

She sighed, “Harry, why didn’t you transfigure yourself? You know, you’re famous.”

“I didn’t think--”

“--Well, do it now.” She tried to get him to a more obscure place for him to transfigure, but he said, “I don’t know how.”

“What do you mean, ‘you don’t know how’?”

“Um…”

At this moment, Tonks was entirely sure, that hiring kids who didn’t even finish school was a bad idea. But life decided to hammer it in even more.

The house in the field of vision of the pair of Aurors was the one they were meant to investigate. Its shutters closed and Tonks began to run towards it. She blasted the door with her wand but the building seemed to be empty. “Homenum Revelio” she murmured. They had managed to escape.

Harry had just run into the shop, panting. “Have we got them?”

Tonks groaned, “No Harry, we don’t have them.”

“Sooo…” Harry looked at her, embarrassed, “Should I find Ron?”

Tonks just wanted him out of her sight, “Sure, you do that.”

Harry didn’t wait for her to change her mind and left in a hurry.


	3. First Day (3/3)

Tonks decided that after such a terrible display of her new co-workers she will call it a day. She went to Weasley Wizard Wheezes to get Harry and Ron because Harry’s seemed to fail at even bringing Ron to her.

She entered the crowded shop and saw Harry putting a little of everything to his pockets and Ron chatting to George who didn’t try to hide the hole where his ear used to be, as if wearing it as a badge of honor.

“My little brother, an Auror,” George grinned, “I still can’t believe it.”

“To be fair, you never had any faith in me.”

“Oh, you know that it was all jokes, right?” George seemed to be much less mischievous and more pensive after the War. “I’m really proud of you, bro.” He patted him on the arm. Then he noticed Tonks. “Hey, Tonks, how is it going?”

Tonks saw the pleading eyes of Harry and Ron and decided not to embarrass them. At least not here and now. “Oh, hi, George,” Tonks pretended that it’s all fine, “Not bad, just taking a break.”

“Does Mad-Eye know about this break?”

“Well… You won’t say anything, right?”

George pretended to be offended, “Me? I will never rat on a fellow skiver!” He took her arm and gave her a tour of the shop. Tonks had never been there before and fell in love with the place instantly.

There were a lot of funny objects there, but many were things that could be useful on the job. She took a handful of Decoy Detonators, Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, and one Skiving Snackbox.

It’s better to skip the moment when Tonks dropped a box of Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-bangs which started to explode and flooded the whole shop. It took fifteen minutes to lead all of the fireworks out of the shop because even George didn’t know how to stop them.

She shook George’s hand and left the shop with Harry and Ron who were surprisingly silent. Tonks felt a strong urge to ask one thing.

“Harry, even if you can’t Transfigure yourself, you still have an Invisibility Cloak.”

“I… I forgot it,” Harry hung his head.

“But you can Disapparate to get it back instantly...”

“Oh...” Harry went red.

“You can go home now, let’s call it a day,” Tonks said, pretending all is good. It wasn’t very convincing.

“Okay,” Harry muttered, “see you at eight.”

“What? Why?”

“The housewarming party,” Harry raised his eyebrows, “we sent you an owl yesterday.”

Tonks didn’t comment on the one day notice and only said, “Must have slipped Remus’s mind. But we’ll be there.”

There was an uncomfortable silence. Only the released fireworks exploded in the sky above. “So...” Tonks said, “see ya.” She turned around and Disapparated.

***

Tonks burst through Moody’s office door where he sat, unfazed, looking at some documents.

“So, how was it?” Moody asked, not looking up from the paperwork, but his magical eye was almost certainly fixed on Tonks.

“Terrible,” Tonks blurted out, “they are absolutely terrible!”

“You must be overexaggerating. They defeated Voldemort, they must be skilled.”

“We went to Diagon Alley, Ron instantly went to his brother’s shop and we needed a rescue mission to get him back! And Harry...”

“Yes?” Tonks knew that Moody always preferred to listen to the whole story and know exactly how furious he should be.

“So then Harry and I went alone and I saw that people were following us, because Harry is famous, so I told him to Transfigure his face to lose them. But he said he didn’t know how to do it. Then the perps saw us and the crowd through the window and Disapparated.”

Moody looked up from his documents. There was silence for a moment but the anger in Tonks rose and rose and then she exploded, “HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BE INCOGNITO WITH HARRY FREAKING POTTER WHO IS SO DUMB, THAT HE CANNOT CHANGE HIS FACE?”

“Not being able to Transfigure yourself is a serious flaw in an Auror,” Moody grunted, “but Potter has this Cloak of his--”

“--HE FORGOT IT.”

“But he can Apparate--”

“--I KNOW, BUT, APPARENTLY, HE DOESN'T REMEMBER THAT HE CAN. NOW THAT I THINK OF IT, MAYBE THEY JUST RAN THE ENTIRE WAY FROM THE TRAIN STATION TO THE MINISTRY.”

“I admit, they are idiots,” Moody sighed, “but we don’t have a choice. I will unleash my fury on them tomorrow but you and… Dawlish,” he said with venom in his voice, “have to train them. Kingsley wants to be posted on their progress. Tonks, I know it’s a lot to ask. But it may be only temporary.”

Tonks sighed. She understood the situation but she knew that it would be exhausting. At least she liked Harry and Ron. Though, she thought, that maybe it won’t stay like that for long.

“I know, Mad-Eye,” she sighed, “We’ll make do.”

“That’s what I like to hear. Are you going to their party?” he asked.

“Yeah, me and Remus haven’t been out much this last few months. You?”

“I’ll make a brief appearance. Can’t leave the post for long.”

“Do you even go home or are you here all the time?” Tonks joked.

“Of course I’m here all the time.”

“Where do you sleep?” she asked.

“I don’t,” he grunted.

“You have to sleep, Mad-Eye!”

“Sometimes I doze off on the desk, but my eye is always awake. And all the detectors are always on,” he added, “I’m not suicidal.”

“I think that’s too much,” Tonks said.

“Too much?” Moody snorted, “a bunch of teenagers broke into this building. TWICE. And, according to you, those teenagers are incompetent.”

Tonks didn’t have any retort. “Fair point,” she said, “See you.” He nodded and went back to his paperwork.

***

“So, how are my students doing?” Lupin asked Tonks.

Tonks froze and dropped her plate. Lupin automatically flicked his wand and repaired the plate and put it in its place.

“Oh, you know, good.” Tonks knew that she had to become a more convincing liar.

Lupin looked at her, but even if he saw through her lies, he pretended to believe her.

“Dora, we don’t have to go,” he said.

“But I want to,” she said, “Mom will take care of Teddy and it’s been a slow day at work.”

Lupin took her arm and they Disapparated together.


	4. Wizards of Grimmauld Place (1/3)

“So...” Tonks said, “see ya.” She turned around and Disapparated.

Harry and Ron looked at the place where she disappeared, speechless.

“So...” Ron muttered, “It wasn’t a perfect first day but...”

“Ron,” Harry said, “It was terrible. Do you even take this job seriously?”

“Yeah, I do,” Ron blushed. “I don’t wanna be that guy, but if you’d come with me, everything would have been fine. We’d have caught the bad guys. I’m not the one who messed up. Actually, they would have probably recognized me too, so I made the right choice.”

Ron’s logic didn’t resemble Earth’s logic but… also made sense somehow.

“Fine,” said Harry, “but we have to get ourselves together starting tomorrow.”

“Yeah, tomorrow.”

“Let’s go home. We have a party to prepare.”

***

They Apparated at their new home, 12 Grimmauld Place. They’d spend their summer in the Burrow with their girlfriends and hadn’t been here since the house was discovered by Death Eaters. It was in a better state than they expected. No dust, no furniture destroyed, or papers on the ground.

“You’re sure we’ll be able to prepare a party in four hours?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, that’s about how long it takes mum to do it,” Ron answered, scaling the stairs.

They decided to take the rooms which belonged to the nicer people of the Black family. Ron took Regulus Black’s room and Harry chose his godfather’s room. Ron didn’t seem happy about sleeping in a place covered by Slytherin posters but he probably felt bad about getting rid of them, as Regulus was one of the only Slytherins they knew, who was not bad to the bone.

After they settled into their rooms, Harry and Ron became hungry. After all, they had such a productive day at work and they didn’t even manage to eat lunch, so they needed something to eat. They came down to the kitchen and stared at it, dazzled.

The whole kitchen was decorated like a children’s birthday party. There were colorful garlands, candles, instead of antique china plates, they were made of paper, in the middle there was a huge cake, it had about ten levels. Above the decorations there was a banner, changing its colors rapidly, which read “WELCOME BACK MASTER HARRY AND MASTER RON”

Then, they noticed a House Elf, running up to them, blowing his party horn. He was wearing a children’s towel with broomsticks and dragons on it. “Welcome back, Masters,” Kreacher bowed.

“We don’t do that here,” Harry said, “you don’t have to bow.”

“Oh, Kreacher doesn’t mind.”

Harry looked at Kreacher and remembered him leading the other House Elves during the Battle of Hogwarts. He deserved more than being a slave, even if he liked it. He felt guilty about not contacting him during the summer, but being a master of a House Elf wasn’t something he was used to.

“How did you know that we were coming?” Ron asked.

“Master’s mother told Kreacher when she brought Masters’ things yesterday.”

“Mum was here?” Ron looked around suspiciously, “but we told her we wanted to become independent and not need her help.”

“She said that Masters would die without her but Kreacher will make sure you will have everything you need. She put your things in the rooms on the first floor.”

“Oh,” Harry said, “we were going to take Sirius and Regulus rooms.”

“Regulus is a good choice, Master Harry,” Kreacher bowed.

This conversation made Harry realize one thing: hearing and seeing Kreacher behaving like Harry and Ron are better than him was hurtful. He risked his life to fight the Death Eaters, showed bravery equal to other veterans of the Battle of Hogwarts, and didn’t deserve to be anyone’s slave.

The question is, Harry thought, how to play it right? Simply giving Kreacher a piece of clothing would make him miserable. He had to talk to him, honestly.

“Harry, this pie is amazing,” Ron said, stuffing himself with a pecan pie, without doing the courtesy of cutting it into pieces, “you HAVE to try it.”

“Leave something for the guests,” Harry looked at his watch, “we don’t have much time, actually.”

“It’s good Kreacher prepared the whole party for us, right?” Ron nodded at Kreacher, who was very happy with himself.

“Yeah, that’s great.” 

Harry didn’t eat, only looked at the table, thinking.


	5. Wizards of Grimmauld Place (2/3)

The first to arrive were Ron’s parents. They brought with them even more food than Kreacher prepared.

“You didn’t have to, Mistress,‘ said Kreacher, taking the trays away.

“Oh, that’s no trouble at all, Kreacher,” said Mrs. Weasley while taking off her coat. “And I’m pretty sure that Ronald has already eaten half of what you prepared, hasn’t he?” She stared at her son.

“That would be… a fair assumption, Mum.”

“So, whom have you invited?” asked Ron’s dad.

“Well, we invited Tonks and Lupin, obviously,” said Harry, “Moody too, but I doubt he will make an appearance.”

“What about Dawlish?” asked Mr. Weasley.

“Who?” Harry and Ron said.

“The Auror you’re working with?”

“Oh, him. Ron, did you invite him?”

“Nope.” 

“We forgot.” There was an awkward silence. “We also invited Kingsley but that was a really long shot.”

“Anyone else?” Mrs. Weasley asked.

“Hmmm… No, mum.” Ron leaned in and whispered in Harry’s ear: “You know what, we need more adult friends. Or just more friends.”

This is much fewer people than we thought, Harry thought. He thought that it was going to be a huge party but most of the people they really liked were still at Hogwarts. He was prepared for it to be awkward.

Just before Molly and Arthur managed to sit at the table, the bell rang. Harry rushed to the door. It was Lupin and Tonks. She was holding his arm.

“I hope we’re not late,” Lupin said.

“Oh, not at all,” Harry took their coats. “How is my godson doing? You didn’t bring him?”

“Let me tell you something, Harry,” said Lupin. “Being a stay at home dad is gratifying but extremely hard.” Tonks left them to greet the rest of the party. Lupin lowered his voice and was speaking with the speed of a machine gun. “Now the truth, Harry. It’s TERRIFYING, absolutely terrifying. So much to do, so many things to learn. Teddy is a troublemaker, at least when I’m around. But with Tonks…? like an angel. I don’t know why or how. I’m afraid that my Boggart changed from the moon into my own son. But don’t tell Dora, I am begging you.”

Meanwhile, Tonks managed to flip over the same coat hanger she used to when Order of the Phoenix had headquarters here.

“Oh no. Not again,” she sighed.

“STAINS OF DISHONOUR, FILTHY HALF BREEDS, BLOOD TRAITORS, CHILDREN OF FILTH!” the painting in the corridor screamed.

“Why is there even a coat hanger here?!” Tonks asked, getting up from the floor. “Everyone uses the one by the door.”

“Kreacher! Can you help?” Harry tried to outyell the painting’s voice.

There was a loud bang and the House Elf appeared near the painting and snapped. The curtains closed and there was silence.

“Like really, is it here to taunt me?”

“Knowing the house... Yes. And also it’s probably stuck to the floor with magic,” Harry tried to move it with all his (not that considerable) strength, to no effect. “You see? It only falls over when it wants to.” He turned to the House Elf. “Kreacher, thank you so much for your help with Mrs. Black.”

“Of course, Master,” he bowed.

“Can you get rid of the coat hanger, please?” Harry asked, trying as much as he could for it not to sound like an order.

“Kreacher is sorry, Master, but he cannot do that. Mistress told him to enchant the coat hanger this way and make it irreversible.”

“Why?” Harry and Tonks raised their eyebrows.

“Mistress knew that Sirius Black would inherit the house and probably cover up her painting, so she wanted to make sure that there would be something to wake her up when someone’s walking by.”

What was it that Harry felt at that moment? Was he feeling bad for his godfather’s racist mother?

“So that means that it’s not my fault that I trip over the hanger, right? I’m not a klutz!” Tonks smiled triumphantly.

Harry and Lupin nodded, because what was their other option?

“Oi, are you coming or not?” Ron shouted from the kitchen.

“Ronald, this is no way to talk to your guests!” Mrs. Weasley scolded him.

The dinner was delicious. Harry tried helping Kreacher serve the food and stopping Mrs. Weasley from doing it for them. Ron decided that Harry and Kreacher got it covered and sat relaxed and entertained the guests.

“It’s so nice to spend some time without Teddy,” Tonks said. “Dora and I love him but when there is any occasion to get out of the house and we can find someone to babysit we take it.” Harry thought he saw Tonks wince when Lupin said “Dora.”

“It’s been tough for us,” said Molly, “because no one wanted to take care of Fred and George, and I don’t blame them. So until they went to school, we didn’t go out anywhere. But I don’t think Teddy will be like them.”

“I don’t think anyone has ever been or ever will be like them,” answered Lupin.

“Tonks, so how is my son doing? Is he an Auror material? There may or may not be a bet going on between me and Molly--”

“--Arthur…”

“Just joking. But how is he?”

Harry and Ron pleaded to Tonks with their eyes.

“They were really good,” Tonks said, gritting her teeth. “You almost don’t feel that they didn’t have proper training.”

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley looked at her skeptically.

“Either way, the bet is for the first week, not the first day.”

“Arthur!”

Suddenly, they heard loud banging on the door.

“I’m going to get it,” said Harry, and went upstairs. When he opened the door he saw a dark silhouette towering over him. Before he could see anything more, the person jumped him.


End file.
